…that was my first ever ‘race’. It could have taken me three hours and it would still have been a PB and a milestone achievement. Completing a 10k was the goal I set
myself when I started this running thing back in April, a goal I duly achieved in Sheffield.
You may think that completing the Bristol Half Marathon was a
greater achievement and in terms of what I achieved on the individual respective days I
would have to agree. But if we look at the bigger picture and the journeys upon which I embarked to get to those two days, I’d argue differently – and win!Why? I shall explain!

I signed up for the TenTenTen on May 25, when I
would still have been around 14st. I have to guesstimate here as I only started
weighing myself a month later: I wanted to feel I was around the 13st7lbs (or 85kg, in my mindset) when I’d first see those LCD digits again so kept off the scales during the early stages of exercise. Even more critically, my longest run up to that day had been 5.2km,
in around 33’. Completing the TenTenTen was going to require me to double my
longest ever run and to achieve some serious weight-loss / fitness-gain…

…now let’s look at my status ahead of the Bristol
Half. I signed up on August 13, by which time I’d got down to 12st – only slightly above my current weight, as that was pretty much my weight target. More importantly,
by then I’d introduced weekly long runs into my training schedule and had, for
two Sundays running, run 18.5km. A decent distance for someone training for a
10k! Both those runs had taken me 1h53’ at the unspectacular pace of 6’09”/km, but I felt fairly comfortable about adding an extra 2.6km to convert those into
a half marathon. I had plenty of work ahead of me if I was going to crawl under
the two-hour mark and that work paid off with my 1h49’54” time. But signing
up to bridge that 2.6km gap having been in training for sixteen weeks didn’t
feel as daunting as doubling my distance when I signed up for the TenTenTen
just five weeks into finding my feet (and it would have been after only a
couple of weeks had the site taken registrations earlier!).

Since then, I have run longer than half-marathon
distance on seven occasions, in four different countries. My level of confidence is significantly greater
than back in the Spring: I don’t question my ability to finish a half though of
course I acknowledge plenty of scope for improvement as far as time is
concerned. I am confident of completing the Greater Manchester Marathon providing I keep putting in the effort in training over the next 142 days. I am not confident of achieving my target time, but that’s fine: balancing confidence and fear is a skill that any performer, amateur or pro, on whatever stage needs to master. Because the trouble with confidence is that if you’re not careful and allow it to grow beyond healthy limits it
turns into arrogance; and we all know where that can bite you…

…so I’ve had to teach myself some respect this past
week. Respect for the 10k! Yes, of course I can run 10k – but that is no longer
my goal, having achieved it in September. My time in the TenTenTen was 50’45”,
which by far exceeded my ambition of crawling under the hour mark. Which was great…
only it sets expectations for Sunday! I am no longer in a situation where any
time is my best ever time!

My goal for Sunday is to break the 50’ mark. Easier
said than done, of course. I have run three flat 10k training runs this week in
51’02”, 49’55” and 49’40” respectively, whereas after 10 of today’s 11k I was
at 49’30”. So I am frightfully close to the mark: I could be on track only for one person
to step out in front of me to take me over it!

However, when I look back to September I see that my best pre-race 10k practice
was 53’48”. Come race day, adrenaline and being part of a herd helped me shave 3’05” off it – or 5.7%,
if you prefer. I’m no expert, as you well know, but I wouldn’t have thought the
TenTenTen route, with its grassy bank and narrow woodlands, was designed for
PB-seekers. Now, 5.7% off yesterday’s 49’40” would equate to 46’50”. That
sounds great, doesn’t it?

Sure does. But I’m realistic enough to not expect
such a great improvement on race day, partly due to the law of diminishing returns and also because 5k and 10k are the two distances
that hurt me the most in training. By that I mean spleen pain: I’m obviously
going for pace rather than distance and my body seems to cope better with the
latter. Which is why I pulled up when running 5k
on August 24, for example, whereas I’ve never pulled up when running 20k+. Hence my need to respect the 10k: of course I
can finish it, but I mustn’t get arrogant about times. I must respect the
distance and my spleen!

Sunday’s race should also be the last one I run
without a GPS watch. I’ve asked Father Christmas for some vouchers to spend on
one of those and I’m already looking forward to better pacing my runs, both
training and races. Nor will I have Jon to pace me through it: I wouldn’t have
held him back anyway (and by that I mean I’d have let him do his own thing, not that I’d have kept up with him!), but today he’s finally decided to pull out as his
hamstrings are still recovering from the Shakespeare Half Marathon and his current panto
commitments mean he needs to be as fit as possible for the day job. Unless I wear
my phone around my arm, as I always do in training but didn’t do on either of
my September races, I won’t have much of a clue about pace, although my legs
and brain have synched up well this week and I’ve not been too bad at figuring
out how fast I’ve been going… And that, my friends, will be the key to a sub-50’
time on Sunday: I can do it and I know I can do it, but I need to pace myself
right. Whereas in most sports it is doing the unexpected, something different, being blessed with a moment of genius, in running being as regular, consistent, predictive as possible seems to be key. Fortunately I’m getting better at it, as my average pace varies increasingly less during runs. Just as well: my spleen can’t cope with me shooting out of the blocks on a 5 or 10km run. Furthermore, I
don’t know the route for Sunday: Simon (another GVC member and one whose pace I
can but dream of) has said it’s flat and with sections on sand (a sharp contrast to the hilly grassy
bank of Sheffield!)… but racing on sand will be a new experience
for my feet and, indeed, my mind.

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About Me

Made in Sheffield, exported worldwide. Grew up near Genoa, Italy; returned to Sheffield for Uni (with some time in Nice thrown in for good measure) before falling South and then stumbling West to London, Slough and now North Somerset. Any further West and I'm going to get awfully wet. The 176m separating me from Sheffield generally shrink when I'm online.